http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/obama-administration-to-announce-new-terror-alert-system/article/2577760Obama administration to announce new terror alert system
By Jacqueline Klimas (@jacqklimas) • 12/7/15 11:08 AM
The Obama administration will announce a new terror alert system in the coming days to better reflect today's threat environment ruled by intermediate-level threats and homegrown attackers, Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson said Monday.
The U.S operates under a system today called the National Terrorism Advisory System, which is triggered by specific, credible threats to the homeland. Because of that high bar, the system has never been used since 2011 when it replaced the color-coded alert system implemented in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.
"I believe in this environment we need to get beyond that and go to a new system that has an intermediate level to it," Johnson said at a Defense One Live event in Washington.
He said he hoped to announce the new system in full "in the coming days."
Johnson said the current system works well to alert the public about international terrorist threats, which officials are good at detecting with a lot lead time.
The change comes after last week's terrorist attack in San Bernardino, Calif., the type of homegrown threat that Johnson said is much harder to detect and may not come with as much notice.
"Our intelligence community has developed a pretty good system for detecting global and overseas plots at their earliest stages. A terrorist-inspired attack domestically is a harder challenge. It could happen at a moment's notice with little or no notice to our law enforcement and intelligence communities," Johnson said.
The shooting in San Bernardino, which killed 14 people, was carried out by Syed Rizwan Farook and his wife Tashfeen Malik, who had reportedly become radicalized. The FBI said last week that it is investigating the shooting as an act of terrorism.
This "new phase" of the terrorist threat means officials are sometimes dealing with attacks from someone who may be "way below our radar," Johnson said.
To help with that, he called on the public to alert officials to patterns of strange behavior, noting that when someone is becoming radicalized and turning to violence, others close to them see the signs.
"'If you see something, say something,' is more than just a slogan," he said.
